Help Save Super Arcade!

As most of you are probably aware, Super Arcade in Walnut, California has fallen on some hard times in recent weeks. Unfortunate circumstances have left the establishment with very few cabinets and community mainstay Mike Watson is now its sole owner. While Level|Up Series’ Wednesday Night Fights and The Runback bring competition to the venue every week, an air of uncertainty about its future is still present, especially with the closure of Family Fun Arcade still fresh in everyone’s minds.

Luckily, there’s still hope for this bastion of Southern California competition. A donation drive was recently set up through WePay that asks patrons of the facility and members of the wider fighting game community to help Watson gain some ground against the mounting expenses. Those who donate will be entered into a number of special drawings for various Mad Catz items that will be broadcast live on Thursday or Friday after the fundraiser ends to ensure its integrity.

When contacted for a bit more context on his plans, Watson had this to say:

During this entire ruckis I have learned many things, and although I am new to the arcade ownership side of things, I have always been a people person and dealt with my customers very well over the years. When times are tough people show their true colors. I personally ran a charity tournament for someone I genuinely cared about and it felt awesome. Now I am running one for myself and the community and have mixed emotions. The goal here is to provide a future for game lovers and the FGC here in Southern California and hopefully this will make it happen. After all prizes are given out I want to have a couple “customer appreciation days” where I can turn everything on free play and give back to the community once again that have stood by me and supported me during my rough time. I promise Super Arcade will rise again and better than ever once all this is complete. I have a deep passion for fighting games and a great love for the community involved. Thank you all once again for the support and hope you get something out of Super Arcade, whether it be countless hours of hanging out with friends here, competition from our tournaments, or even being at home and stream monstering it up with levelup and iebattlegrounds. As long as someone is enjoying and benefiting from my hard work and that of my crew, that is enough to make my long hours and rough nights till 4am all worth while.

Stay strong FGC and lets push for an even stronger future.

We also asked Alex Valle of Level|Up Series, the organizers behind Wednesday Night Fights and The Runback, for their perspective on the situation.

Super Arcade, the home of Weds Night Fights and The Runback, is going through some rough times right now. The transition period from the previous owner has taken effect this year which has unfortunately set back the arcade. Mike Watson and I are working around the clock to make sure the SoCal community and fans around the world have a place we can all level up from. If you’d like to support, please visit https://www.wepay.com/donations/save-super-arcade. Thanks goes to everybody for their continued support and we’ll have updates as they come in.

The passion these two individuals have for the fighting game community and the further strengthening of our scene has never been in question, so let’s see what we can do to match their enthusiasm. If you have anything to spare, feel free to follow the link below and donate. The fundraiser will be open through February 14th.